Editorial: Northern Ireland wishes King Charles well after his cancer diagnosis

​It is almost 18 months since Queen Elizabeth II died and King Charles III took the throne.

​From those earliest days of his succession the King received a wave of public sympathy over his bereavement and support in his new position.

It was apparent in the crowds that greeted the new monarch on his visit to Northern Ireland five days after the Queen’s death at Balmoral Castle.

There has always been affection and admiration for King Charles, who has been in the public eye since he was born 75 years ago.

His devotion to public duty has been apparent his whole life, and like his parents, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, he has conducted engagements far into what would normally be considered retirement age (in the case of the late Queen more than 35 years past normal working age given that women of her generation, if they worked at all, typically did so only to their pension aged 60).

It is this obvious commitment to the role of royal service into which he was born that partly explains the King’s popularity. But only partly. The sense of warmth is also because only the very elderly in the nation have much memory of a time before Charles, so we have lived through his life and his traumas – latterly including an apparent rift with his beloved son, Prince Harry.

It is poignant and uplifting therefore that Harry is rushing home to see his father after the king’s cancer diagnosis, which was revealed yesterday.

King Charles has had a lifetime of preparation for becoming monarch and it shows in the ease with which he has become head of state.

As the cross-party political response to this worrying news shows, Northern Ireland is wishing His Majesty King Charles well and hoping for a recovery to full health.